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I first learned of The SPIRIT in the 1967 edition of The PENGUIN BOOK Of COMICS when I borrowed it from my local library in '72. Read a few stories over the years, even met WILL EISNER in 1985 or '86, but I couldn't say I was ever a massive fan of DENNY COLT, alias The Spirit. Probably because I'd simply never read enough of his reprinted adventures for the series to click with me.
I'm closer to being a massive fan now though, since reading these two collected editions of the late DARWYN COOKE's run on the character. Other creators pitched in too, but Cooke best captures the (dare I say it?) spirit and the mood of the original Eisner strips. Funny thing is, I bought the debut issue of the comic when it first came out, as well as the team-up with BATMAN, but I never read 'em. Have now though, 'cos they're in the first book in this two volume set (sold separately).
So if you're a fan of either The Spirit or the late Darwyn Cooke, then these two books are sure to tickle your sporran and float your boat. Straight 'round to your local comicbook store with you.
Aaaaand the shopping list grows ever longer! I have been a long-time fan of Eisner's the Spirit (not so much of his later scratchily-drawn real-life tenement stories), my first introduction via the colour Harvey reprints. Imagine my surprise on finding that the originals were all in black and white, which I did on reading and collecting all 16 of the Warren reprint issues (with a coloured one in each issue). Being a bit of a Film Noir fan by that stage (mid '70s) the noir stylings of his art had added appeal even beyond his brilliant 7 page 'short stories' and character studies. Darwyn seems to have been quite prolific judging by all of the collections out there,
ReplyDeleteI really must catch up on the Eisner material one day, PC. I think everything gets collected nowadays, but apart from New Frontier and the Graphic Ink book, the collections of Darwyn's work are quite slim volumes.
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised that this post attracted so few comments. I’m a massive Darwyn Cooke fan, and loved these 12 Spirit comics he did (plus the Batman team-up), and I picked up the hardback books a few years back. Reading the Cooke version inspired me to pick up the first 5 editions of the hardback Spirit archives which I picked up at $3 each in a second hand shop in DeKalb, Illinois a few years back. Great stuff - and they filled in a massive gap in my knowledge of comics history. I really recommend those Spirit archive editions from DC if you can get them.
ReplyDeleteI'm often surprised at which posts attract loads of comments, a handful of comments, or none at all. B. It's difficult if not impossibly to predict with any degree of accuracy. I'll add the DC Spirit Archives to the list (not sure, but I may have the first one), but there's a helluva lot of stuff on that list.
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